please comment on Linux compatibility with the new computer I'm planning

[imported_nathan]

I'm planning to build a new computer soon. I want to exclusively run Linux on it. I'm primarily using it for scientific computing, but I want other regular things to work as well, like decent video, sound, networking, USB, firewire, etc.

Please comment on my choice of hardware. I do not plan to overclock because I really want a stable system that I can run long term on calculations and I want to be able to trust the answers that I get.

CPU: Athlon 64 X2 4800+
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-K8NXP-SLI
Video card: GeForce 6600 GT from Gigabyte: GV-NX66T128VP (PCI Express)

For the hard drive, I'm going to use a Seagate portable USB drive temporarily until the new SATA 2 drives are available (the Seagate 7200.9 series).

thanks for your help.

 

[bersl2]

CPU: Remember to either use a stock kernel with or build your own with SMP enabled.
Motherboard: I do not know how well the proprietary nForce drivers work with SMP. If you use the drivers from in-kernel (IDE, SATA, Ethernet), you may be trading performance for stability (I don't trust proprietary drivers more than I must). Admittedly, an nVidia motherboard isn't the greatest thing under Linux (I bought mine a while ago, but by the time I get all my parts, there might be boards with that new ULI chipset---BTW, can anybody comment on ALI/ULI's history on giving out specs? I seem to remember that my first laptop had one of their chipsets in it, and it did well, but I wouldn't know any better), but everything works IIRC. If you're building your own kernel, make sure you enable PCIe support. I think that means you might have to use a very new kernel, like 2.6.8 or 2.6.9 and newer.
Video card: Looks good to me.

 

[P0ldy]

I think the accelerated graphics are going to depend on your distro to some extent. I've got a 6600GT, and it was hell trying to get the drivers working under SUSE. Sax2 is a PITA. Use a Debian-based for ease of driver installation.

And about the Seagate... you can't enable DMA on SATA drives for some reason. I've heard DMA does *exist* on SATA drives, but hdparm can't do much for SATA drives at this time.

 

[rmrf]

P0ldy: For DMA issue, I believe that hdparm does work if your kernel has been patched with "ATA Passthru". The link I've attached explains more about that, and a simple google search of "ATA Passthru" will bring up the information needed to download the patch. There was also a comment made that suggests newer kernels already have this patch applied, so DMA is possible on SATA drives under linux.

To check whether or not your kernel has the patch applied, run this command:

hdparm -I /dev/<SATA device>

http://osx.freshmeat.net/projects/hdparm/

Hope you find this helpful.

 

[drag]

For the motherboard I prefer to use Via K8t890 (or other via) based motherboard over Nvidia. If you get a high quality one it's just as nice as any nvidia board and the compatability is going to be slightly better.

Dont' worry about such things as SLI support or SATA-II vs SATA, or onboard RAID0/1. Or that sort of thing. SLI support in Linux isn't going to be that great, so forget thinking that you can upgrade later with a second 6600gt card when they get cheaper. And even if the propriatory Nvidia drivers end up supporting it well.. then it only would work on applications specificly designed to use it. That sort of thing.

Also for sound... Get a Audigy (not audigy ls) or similar emu10k based cards. These are featurefull and even though you end up with a lot of extra sliders that you shouldn't touch in Linux they do support hardware mixing of multiple sound inputs.

This is very handy. If you control the levels well you get good sound output and they are inexpensive. Most sound cards nowadays and all onboard style sound doesn't support the hardware mixing features, in Linux this means that you can only have one sound being played at once unless your using Dmix or a sound daemon like ESD or Artsd, which can be a hassle to setup and is not a complete solution.

 

[bersl2]

I've had decently good success with the Turtle Beach Santa Cruz. It hardware mixes too. It might be cheaper than an Audigy.

 

[drag]

Santa Cruz is nice, but there maybe problems with getting sdif to work (not sure) and rear speaker outputs to work (pretty sure) in Linux. (althogh if all you want is 2 speakers they work great)

I didn't know that it supported hardare mixing though. That's a nice feature. I am curious at what other cards have hardware mixing...

 

[P0ldy]

Originally posted by: rmrf
P0ldy: For DMA issue, I believe that hdparm does work if your kernel has been patched with "ATA Passthru". The link I've attached explains more about that, and a simple google search of "ATA Passthru" will bring up the information needed to download the patch. There was also a comment made that suggests newer kernels already have this patch applied, so DMA is possible on SATA drives under linux.

To check whether or not your kernel has the patch applied, run this command:

hdparm -I /dev/<SATA device>

http://osx.freshmeat.net/projects/hdparm/

Hope you find this helpful.

Sounds interesting, thanks! I'll be trying this later.

 

[imported_nathan]

Thanks for all the comments. I agree that getting SLI to work in Linux is probably not worth it. However, reports I've read indicated that SATA2 should just work if the controller is supported. That's a feature I definitely want. Also, the Gigabyte board has 1394b which I believe should also work in Linux. I haven't found a VIA board that has these two features. Any suggestions?

 

[sourceninja]

I was under the impression that sata didn't need dma because it was accessed like a scsi device. I'll have to look into that.

This is my linux setup.

AMD64 3500
dfi ultra-D (nforce4 ultra)
1 gig OCZ ram
Maxtor 300 gig sata drive
nec 16X dvd burner
BFG nvidia 6800 GT 256meg


I'm using gentoo with forcedeth drivers compiled into the kernel for networking/ata support, alsa compiled as a module with oss support (although the onboard nvidia sound does not support hardware mixing with alsa) I'm using the vesa-tng frame buffer for bootup so it looks perty. And I have usermode processor scaling enabled so I can use powernowd to dyamically scale down my cpu speed when the computer is idle. Everything works fine (i've got a 64 bit and a 32bit install while I wait for 64 bit to mature) I run NWN, UT2004, doom3, HL2 via cedega along with jedi academy, snes9x, gens, tuxnes, and guildwars (via cedega). I have had no compatiblity issues with hardware. Everything just works. (I initially had mouse trouble, but that was because I didn't compile my kernel with all the usb modules I needed).

I'm getting ready to replace my procsssor with a x2 processor in about 4-5 months, but as long as you use a smp kernel, I think everything should work great.